Ethnobotanical Review and Dataset Compiling on Wild and Cultivated Plants Traditionally Used as Medicinal Remedies in Italy

Abstract

Over the centuries, wild plants have constituted the main food ingredients and traditional medicine in rural communities. In the last decades, thousands of ethnobotanical studies have been conducted, with the aim of documenting the traditional knowledge on wild and cultivated plants both for food and therapeutic purposes. In the present work, 75 published papers related to Italian ethnobotanical knowledge on wild and cultivated plants traditionally used for medical purposes were analyzed and data on 1117 different species organized in the first dataset to target medicinal applications only. For each plant species, the Italian region of use, plant organs, mode of preparation, specific pathological group of application, citation index, and use index were listed. The different therapeutic applications were subdivided into nine main pathological groups according to the targeted human apparatus. Overall, the cited species with highest number of uses were related to the treatment of the digestive system and skin-ears-eyes-hair diseases, followed by diseases of the genito-urinary and respiratory systems. The 13 most relevant species were identified on the basis of their citation and use indexes. The present review on Italian medicinal flora aims to provide valuable information on wild and cultivated species, which are potential sources of plant-based therapeutic remedies, to preserve and reevaluate endangered traditional folk knowledge.

Application of ethnobotanical indices to document the use of medicinal plants in Tehsil Kallar Syedan, District Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan

“…These findings demonstrate the extensive use of above-mentioned species in the treatment of various ailments by the local inhabitants /healers and the consciousness of indigenous peoples, which makes such medicinal plants, the first choice to treat disease. The less use of Adiantum capillus-veneris for medicinal purpose is also supported by the findings of Monari et al (2022). Similarly less and non-popular use of Asparagus gracilis has also been documented by Tariq et al (2019).…”

New Insights on Primary and Secondary Metabolite Contents of Seven Italian Wild Food Plants with Medicinal Applications: A Comparative Study

“…The plants were collected in all the regions at the following phenological stages: B. officinalis, H. perforatum, S. nigra and M. sylvestris at advanced flowering; C. dactylon at vegetative stage with blossom starting to appear; F. vulgaris at vegetative phase (stem elongation 40-60 cm), U. dioica at vegetative phase (stem elongation 90-110 cm). Different individual plants (5)(6) for each species in each sampling area were gathered and pooled together in order to have the same homogeneous starting sample for the following analysis. The collected plants were stored in water to preserve their conditions during travel back to laboratory, and immediately washed and separated into different organs (flowers, leaves, stems, roots, and when present bark, Figure 5).…”

“…In the past, their importance increased during famine periods, but after industrialization from 1950 onward, this kind of traditional knowledge has been progressively disappearing [ 3 ]. In the last few decades, these plant species have been revalued and are receiving considerable increasing attention in general by ethnobotanists and nutritionists [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”

“…Nowadays, wild plants are used in many food recipes, feed, production of drugs (for human and veterinary medicine), household items and ritual uses [ 7 ]. Focusing on human health applications, several ethnobotanical papers have recorded the worldwide use of spontaneous edible plants for medicinal purposes [ 6 , 8 ]. Due to the presence of several biologically active compounds [ 9 ], these species have been reported to have both nutritional and therapeutic value, and are therefore being considered as food–medicines.…”

Sweet Basil between the Soul and the Table—Transformation of Traditional Knowledge on Ocimum basilicum L. in Bulgaria

“…The transformation of plant-related traditional knowledge in Europe has been reported mainly with respect to its abandonment and its potential role in changing attitudes towards the responsible use of biodiversity in local entrepreneurial activities [1,39,[44][45][46][47][48][49]. Research on past and present modes of utilization as well as factors that influence the transmission of this knowledge is focused more on wild plants [10,[50][51][52], and currently, only a few European countries hold systematic knowledge on traditional landraces [53,54]. Recent projects that target the transformation and preservation of biocultural knowledge in Europe also stress its homogenization, especially in regions like the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where prolonged sociopolitical instability during the early 20th century and the following Communist internationalistic policies severely affected rural livelihoods and intergenerational cultural transmission [55][56][57][58].…”